Review/Television; Looking for the Traces Of the First Americans

By WALTER GOODMAN

Published: October 20, 1992

"The Search for the First Americans" digs into a disagreement among archeologists over when the first humans settled in North and South America. As the narrator explains in tonight's lucid edition of "Nova," it is pretty certain that by 40,000 years ago prehistoric hunters had settled in almost every part of the world, but not in the Americas, where the earliest hard evidence of a human presence goes back only 12,000 years.

There are inconclusive hints from the languages of today's native peoples and from DNA research that the first Americans may have arrived in the ice age, perhaps as much as 50,000 years ago, when sea levels dropped, exposing a broad land bridge that linked Asia with North America. But this hour concentrates on archeological finds, particularly stone tools, the solidest evidence of human activity.

The subject is fascinating. With the help of unjargony explanations from experts, on-site photographs of the scientists at work and understandable graphics, the program catches the excitement of the discoveries. Beginning in 1927 in New Mexico, projectile points were found imbedded in the bones of extinct species of bison and mammoths. An archeologist imagines how they got there: the Indians "come in with their spears and throw from the underbelly toward the breast and in the back, hit the spinal column and polish him off.

"After that it was a matter of just having fun carving it up and then eating it."

You will learn a lot here about the special qualities of "the Clovis point," those earliest weapons or tools, named for one of the places in New Mexico where they were found. They are as vital to today's archeologists as they once were to prehistoric hunters.

But it was not until the 1950's and the advent of radiocarbon dating, that archeologists could begin to pin down the age of the Clovis point, which they set at about 11,000 years, just before the end of the ice age. The difficulties of dating are brought out by the cautionary case of a find in Tule Springs, near Las Vegas, Nev., where what were first thought to be man-made tools turned out to be merely rocks that had been chipped by nature, not the first time a promising hand turned bad in Vegas.

The story continues with finds that may indicate a human presence in Northwestern Canada at least 24,000 years ago. That has directed scientists' attention to the possibility that people might have ventured south through a gap in the ice corridor or in canoes that slipped among ice floes.

The most recent clues of early activity, from Chile, Brazil and Pennsylvania, become a touch confusing; but then even experts disagree about their meaning. "Search for the First Americans" conveys the combination of precision and imagination with which archeologists go about their work of translating tiny bits of evidence into grand visions of mankind's earliest migrations. 'The Politics of Power' PBS, tonight at 9 (Channel 13 in New York)

If you've been wondering why the United States has so much trouble developing a sensible energy policy, check out tonight's "Frontline" investigation. Nick Kotz, the program's reporter, focuses especially on the lobbyists whose contributions can warm the cockles or chill the bones of politicians. The oil industry, the automobile industry, the nuclear power industry and environmental groups are among the more muscular players.

Although the program, done in cooperation with the Center for Investigative Reporting, is critical of the Bush Administration, the various forces are given a hearing. Mr. Kotz notes collisions in Washington between the Pentagon, which wants to reduce America's dependence on foreign oil, and the White House, which resists regulation. The situation is further complicated by divergent regional interests. As James D. Watkins, the Secretary of Energy, says, the Northeast, the West, the Southwest and the central United States are "different nations when it comes to energy." And if that were not enough, America's love of the automobile has made proposals to tax gasoline a political nonstarter.

Mr. Kotz does not offer much hope of a coming together on this high-stakes issue. He concludes, to the sight of oil wells burning in Kuwait: "Two years ago, in the midst of the gulf war, Americans briefly shared a common sense of urgency about the danger of being so dependent on foreign oil. Now it's an election year. Gasoline is cheap again, and neither we nor the candidates are paying much attention." Nova Search for the First Americans PBS, tonight at 8 (Channel 13 in New York) Judy Katz and Lisa Mirowitz, associate producers; Evan Hadingham, producer for Nova/WGBH; Simon Campbell-Jones, producer for Horizon/BBC-TV; a co-production of Nova/WGBH and Horizon/BBC-TV; Paula S. Apsell, executive producer; Peter Thomas, narrator.